Author: Irwin Collier
For five Harvard economics Ph.D. candidates this posting provides information about their respective academic backgrounds, the six subjects of their general examinations along with the names of the examiners, the subject of their special subject, thesis subject and advisor(s) (where available).
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DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.
1909-10
Notice of hour and place will be sent out three days in advance of each examination.
The hour will ordinarily be 4 p.m
Melvin Thomas Copeland.
Special Examination in Economics, Friday, December 14, 1909.
General Examination passed May 13, 1908.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Hart, Carver, Sprague, and Munro.
Academic History: Bowdoin College, 1902-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-09; A.B. (Bowdoin), 1906; A. M. (Harvard) 1907. Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1908-09; Instructor, 1909-10.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Organization of the Cotton Manufacturing Industry in the United States.” (With Professors Taussig and Gay.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Gay, Ripley, and Sprague.
William Jackman.
Special Examination in Economics, Monday, May 9, 1910.
General Examination passed Wednesday, May 22, 1907.
Committee: Professors Gay (chairman), Channing, Ripley, Sprague, and Cross.
Academic History: University of Toronto, 1892-96; University of Pennsylvania, 1899-1900; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-07; A.B. (Toronto), 1896; A. M. (ibid.) 1900. Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Vermont, 1901-.
Special Subject: Modern Economic History of England.
Thesis Subject: “The Development of Transportation in Modern England before the Steam Railway Era.” (With Professor Gay.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Gay, Sprague, and Cross.
Eliot Jones.
General Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 19, 1910.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Hart, Carver, Gay, and Sprague.
Academic History: Vanderbilt University, 1900-07; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-10; A.B. (Vanderbilt), 1906; A. M. (Harvard) 1908. Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1909-10.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Statistics. 4. Money, Banking, and Industrial Organization. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Transportation.
Thesis Subject: “The Anthracite Coal Trade.” (With Professor Ripley.)
George Milton Janes.
General Examination in Economics, Friday, May 20, 1910.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Emerton, Gay, Carver, and Sprague.
Academic History: Bangor Theological Seminary, 1896-99; Dartmouth College, 1899-1901; Harvard Divinity School, 1901-02; 1906-08; Middlebury College, 1902-03; Harvard Graduate School, 1908-10; B.Litt. (Dartmouth), 1901; S.T.B. (Harvard) 1902; A.B. (Middlebury) 1903.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History since 1750. 4. Sociology and Social Reform. 5. Transportation and Industrial Organization. 6. Church History since the Council of Constance.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “Canal and Railroad in New York.” (With Professor Gay.)
Charles Edward Persons.
Special Examination in Economics, Monday, May 23, 1910.
General Examination passed February 23, 1909.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Gay, Carver, and Sprague.
Academic History: Cornell College (Iowa), 1898-1903; Harvard Graduate School, 1904-05, 1906-09; A.B. (Cornell College), 1903; A. M. (Harvard) 1905. Instructor in Economics, Wellesley College, 1908-09; Preceptor, Princeton University, 1909-.
Special Subject: Industrial History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The History of the Ten-Hour Law in Massachusetts.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Bullock, and Ripley.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1909-10”.
Image Source: Widener Library, 1915. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Digital ID: cph 3c14486
The Johns Hopkins Ph.D., Henry Ludwell Moore, was a pioneer in the application of statistics to neoclassical economics. His most famous students were Paul H. Douglas and Henry Schultz.
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[Bibliography through 1930]
HENRY LUDWELL MOORE
1869-[1958]
A.B., Randolph-Macon, 1892; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1896.
Instructor in Economics, 1896-1897, Lecturer in Political Economy, Johns Hopkins, 1897-1898; Professor of Political Economy, Smith, 1897-1902; Adjunct Professor of Political Economy, 1902-1906, Professor of Political Economy, Columbia, 1906-1929.
Books
Laws of Wages; An Essay in Statistical Economics. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1911. viii, 196 p.
Economic Cycles: Their Law and Cause. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914. viii, 149 p. [Japanese translation, Tokyo, 1926]
Forecasting the Yield and Price of Cotton. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1917. vi, 173 p.
Generating Economic Cycles. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1923. xi, 141 p.
Synthetic Economics. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1929. vii, 186 p.
Articles
Von Thunen’s Theory of Natural Wages. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Apr., July 1895, IX, 291-304, 388-408.
Antoine-Augustin Cournot. Revue de métaphysique et de morale, May 1905, XIII, 521-543.
The Personality of Antoine Augustin Cournot. Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1905, XIX, 370-399.
Paradoxes of Competition. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb. 1906, XX, 211-230.
The Variability of Wages. Political Science Quarterly, Mar. 1907, XXII, 61-73.
The Differential Law of Wages. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Dec. 1907, LXX, 638-651.
The Efficiency Theory of Wages. Economic Journal, Dec. 1907, LXIII, 571-579.
The Statistical Complement of Pure Economics. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Nov. 1908, XXIII, 1-33.
Crop-Cycles in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, May 1919, LXXXII, 373-389.
Empirical Laws of Demand and Supply and the Flexibility of Prices. Political Science Quarterly, Dec. 1919, XXXIV, 546-567.
Crop-Cycles in the United Kingdom and in France. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, May 1920, LXXXIII, 445-454.
Forecasting the Crops of the Dakotas. Political Science Quarterly, June 1920, XXXV, 204-235.
Generating Cycles of Products and Prices. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb. 1921, XXXV, 215-239.
Generating Cycles Reflected in a Century of Prices. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug. 1921, XXXV, 503-526.
The Origin of the Eight-Year Generating Cycle. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Nov. 1921, XXXVI, 1-29.
Elasticity of Demand and Flexibility of Prices. Journal of the American Statistical Association, Mar. 1922, XVIII, 8-19.
An Eight-Year Cycle in Rainfall. Monthly Weather Review, July 1922, L, 357-359.
Economic Cycles. Geographical Review, Oct. 1923, XIII, Sup., 662.
A Moving Equilibrium of Demand and Supply. Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1925, XXXIX, 357-371.
Partial Elasticity of Demand. Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1926, XL, 393-401.
Pantaleoni’s Problem in the Oscillation of Prices. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug. 1926, XL, 586-596.
A Theory of Economic Oscillations. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Nov. 1926, XLI, 1-29.
Source: A Bibliography of the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University 1880-1930. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931), pp. 104-105.
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For more about Henry Moore, see George J. Stigler, Henry L. Moore and Statistical Economics. Econometrica, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Jan., 1962), pp. 1-21.
Image Source: Precedes the Stigler article.
For an earlier posting I transcribed a core list of references for the course on mathematical economics, Economics 402, taught by Henry Schultz at the University of Chicago during the Spring quarter, 1932. That list was found in the papers of Albert G. Hart in the Columbia University archives. A virtually identical core list of references was found in George Stigler’s papers at the University of Chicago archives in a folder labeled “1935 Univ. of Chicago Class notes”. Only a few handwritten additions differ between the two copies.
The “Stigler edition” of the Economics 402 list of references probably comes from the 1935 autumn quarter. There are two reasons to think this besides simply trusting the accuracy of the folder’s label. Stigler’s preliminary examinations for the doctorate must have been taken in May 1935 according to a mimeographed copy of the examination schedules located in this same folder. Mathematical economics was considered a specialized field at the time and was unlikely to have been the subject of the preliminary examination in theory; further, one of the handwritten additions was a reference to an August 1935 paper by Henry Schultz.
The value-added of today’s transcription of the “Stigler edition” compared to the earlier “Hart edition“ is that I have gone to great lengths to provide links to the overwhelming majority of items below. The links to jstor.org are free only to those with access to a research library’s e-resource, but a surprising amount of the stuff is out there and downloadable for free. The posting with the “Hart edition” also includes Schultz’s reference lists for Cost Theory and the Theory of Monopolistic Competition that were not found in the Stigler papers.
I suspect that Stigler only audited Economics 402 because we find only about five pages of his own notes for the course in that folder. In comparison for Schultz’s other course, Theory and Measurement of Demand (Economics 405), one finds about forty pages of notes.
There is one problem with one row in the table of references that I have highlighted in boldface blue. The dates given for the Journal of the American Statistical Association are not associated with papers written by Henry L. Moore nor do any of the papers in the issues noted appear to have papers of particular interest for mathematical economics expect perhaps that by Karl G. Karsten: The Theory of Quadrature in Economics. JASA March, 1924 [Link to jstor.org]. Henry L. Moore’s list of publications only shows a single March 1922 publication in JASA, but many papers in QJE.
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Course Announcements, 1935-36, 1932-33
- Mathematical Economics.— Prerequisite: Economics 301 [Price and Distribution Theory], a reading knowledge of French, and consent of the instructor. Registration for a course or a double course. Autumn, SCHULTZ.
Source: University of Chicago. Announcements, The College and the Divisions for the Sessions of 1935-36, p. 297
- Mathematical Economics.—A study of economic theory from the point of view of assumptions, range of problems, methods and tools, and validity and utility of results under present conditions. Consideration is given to the problem of “circular reasoning” in price theory, to the advantages and limitations of the mathematical approach, and to the possibility of developing a “statistical complement” to pure theory. Special attention is paid to the problem of price determination and to the mathematical theory of production. Readings will be assigned on special topics in the works of Cournot, Jevons, Walras, Pareto, Marshall, Moore, and others; and the class meetings will be devoted chiefly to discussion. Opportunity for investigation of particular problems is offered the student. Prerequisite: Economics 301 [Price and Distribution Theory], a reading knowledge of French, and consent of the instructor. Registration may be made for one or more courses each quarter. Summer, Autumn, SCHULTZ.
Source: University of Chicago. Announcements, Arts, Literature and Science, vol. XXXII, February 25, 1932, no. 12 (for the sessions of 1932-33), p. 355.
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[Autumn Quarter 1935]
REFERENCES FOR ECON. 402
Mathematical Economics
By
Henry Schultz
University of Chicago
| Amoroso, Luigi | Lezioni di Economia Matematica |
| Le Equazioni Differenziali della Dinamica Economica—in Giornale degli Economisti, February, 1929. [Link to jstor.org] | |
| La Curva Statica di Offerta—Giornale degli Economisti, January, 1930. [Link to jstor.org] [English translation: Link to jstor.org] | |
| Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science | July, 1892 (Paper by Walras) [Link to jstor.org] |
| Auspitz, Rudolf Lieben, Richard |
Recherches sur la théorie du prix [Volume I, Volume II] |
| Bentham, Jeremy | Principles of Morals and Legislation [Volume I, Volume II] |
| Bertolasi, Ellen Quittner | Die Stellung der Lausanner Schule in der Grenznutzenlehre—in Arch. f. Sozialw. u. Sozialpol., 64. Band, Heft 1, August, 1930, pp. 16-44. |
| Black, J. D. | [Introduction to] Production Economics [New York, 1926] |
| Bonar, James | Philosophy and Political Economy |
| Bousquet, G. H. | Essai sur l’évolution de la Pensée économique [1927] |
| Précis de sociologie d’àpres Vilfredo Pareto [Paris, 1925] | |
| Vilfredo Pareto: Sa vie et son oeuvre | |
| Boven, Pierre | Les applications mathématiques à l’économie politique [Lausanne, 1912]. |
| Bowley, A. L. | Mathematical Groundwork of Economics |
| Bridgman, P. W. | The Logic of Modern Physics |
| Cassel, Gustav | Theory of Social Economy |
| Fundamental Thoughts on Economics | |
| Cournot, A. A. | The Mathematical Theory of Wealth |
| Théorie des richesses | |
| Cunynghame, H. | Geometrical Political Economy |
| Del Vecchio, Gustavo | La Dinamica Economica Di H. L. Moore—in Giornale degli Economisti, Anno XLV, Giugno, 1930, VIII, No. 6, pp. 545-554. [link to jstor.org] |
| Dicey | Law and Opinion in England |
| Edgeworth, F. Y. | Mathematical Psychics |
| Papers relating to Political Economy [Volume I; Volume II; Volume III.] | |
| Evans, G. C. | Mathematical Introduction to Economics |
| Fisher, Irving | Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices,—in Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences (9-10) pp. 1-125. |
| [Ricci, Umberto] | Elasticità dei bisogni, della domanda e dell’offerta. Giornale degli Economisti Aug. & Oct., 1924.
Link to Part I in jstor.org; link to Part II in jstor.org. |
| Halévy, Élie | La formation du radicalism philosophique [Vol. I. La Jeunesse de Bentham, 1901; Vol. II. L’Évolution de la Doctrine Utilitaire de 1789 a 1815, 1901; Vol. III. Le Radialisme Philosophique, 1904.] |
| Hobson, E. W. | The Domain of Natural Science |
| Jevons, W. S. | Theory of Political Economy [Third edition] |
| Journal of the American Statistical Association | Dec. 1923; March & Dec. 1924; Dec. 1926 (Papers by H. L. Moore) |
| Journal of Political Economy Oct. & Dec. 1925; April 1927 |
Schultz, Henry. The Statistical Law of Demand as Illustrated by the Demand for Sugar, Part I. J.P.E. (Oct., 1925), pp. 481-504. [Link to jstor.org]
Schultz, Henry. The Statistical Law of Demand as Illustrated by the Demand for Sugar, Part II. J.P.E. (Dec., 1925, pp. 577-631. [Link to jstor.org] Ezekiel, Mordecai. A Statistical Examination of Factors Related to Lamb Prices. J.P.E. (Apr., 1927), pp. 233-260. [Link to jstor.org] |
| Marshall, Alfred | Principles of Economics [Eight edition] |
| Industry and Trade | |
| Money, Credit and Commerce | |
| Moore, Henry L. | Laws of Wages |
| Economic Cycles | |
| Forecasting the Yield & the Price of Cotton | |
| Generating Economic Cycles | |
| Synthetic Economics | |
| Moret, Jacques | L’emploi des mathématiques en économie politique |
| Nichol, A. J. | Partial Monopoly and Price Leadership (Privately published)
[cf. “A Re-appraisal of Cournot’s Theory of Duopoly Price”, Journal of Political Economy (Feb. 1934), pp. 80-105. Link to jstor.org] |
| Pantaleoni, M. | Pure Economics |
| Pareto, Vilfredo | Manuel d’économie politique |
| Cours d’économie politique [Volume 1, Volume 2] | |
| Anwendung der Mathematik auf National Ökonomie, —in Encycl. Mathematisch, Wissenschaft, I G 2, pp. 1094-1170 | |
| Économie mathématique, —in Encyclopédie des sciences mathématique, Tome I, vol. 4 (Fascicule 4, pp. 590-640) | |
| The New Theories of Economics, —in Journ. Polit.Econ., Sept. 1897 [Link to jstor.org] | |
| Traité de sociologie générale [Volume I; Volume II] | |
| Pearson, Karl | Grammar of Science |
| Pietri-Tonelli, Alfonso | Traité d’économie rationelle [H. Gamier translation from 3rd Italian edition. Paris, 1927] |
| Pigou, Alfred [sic, Arthur] | Economics of Welfare [4th edition, 1920. ] |
| Planck, Max | A Survey of Physics |
| Poincaré, Henri | Foundations of Science |
| Political Science Quarterly (Paper by Mitchell) |
Vol. XXXIII, June, 1918, No. 2, pp. 164-5 [Part II of “Bentham’s Felicific Calculus”. Link to jstor.org] |
| Quarterly Journal of Economics Jan. 1898; Aug. 1925; Nov. 1926; March[sic] 1927 |
Irving Fisher. “Cournot and Mathematical Economics (Jan., 1898), pp. 119-138. [Link to jstor.org]. And “Appendix: Notes on Cournot’s Mathematics”, pp. 238-244. [Link to jstor.org]
Holbrook Working “The Statistical Determination of Demand Curves” (August, 1925), pp. 503-543. [Link to jstor.org] Henry Ludwell Moore. “A Theory of Economic Oscillations” (Nov., 1926), pp. 1-29. [Link to jstor.org] E. J. Working. “What Do Statistical ‘Demand Curves’ Show?” (Feb., 1927, pp. 212-235. [Link to jstor.org] |
| Revue d’histoire des doctrines économique et sociales | 1910 (Article by Antonelli on Léon Walras) [Link to jstor.org] |
| Revue d’histoire économique et sociale (1924), pp. 225-43 |
G. H. Bousquet. “Vilfredo Pareto — Le Développement et la Signification Historique de son Œuvre”, Vol. 12, No. 2. [Link to jstor.org] |
| Revue de metaphysique et de morale | (13) 1905 (Section on Cournot) [pp. 291-543] |
| Ricci, Umberto | Die statistischen Gesetze des Gleichgewichtes nach Henry Schultz—in Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, January, 1931 |
| Schultz, Henry | [Handwritten addition] Interrelation of Demand, Income and Price J.P.E. Aug. 1935 [Link to jstor.org]
Statistical Laws of Demand and Supply […with Special Application to Sugar. University of Chicago Press, 1938] |
| Marginal Productivity and the General Pricing Process, —Journ. Polit. Econ., Oct. 1929. [Link to jstor.org] | |
| Der Sinn der statistischen Nachfragekurven [Vol 10 of Frankfurter Gesellschaft für Konjunkturforschung, 1939[Handwritten addition] Interrelations of Demand J.P. E. Aug. 1933 [Link to jstor.org] |
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| Vinci, Felice | “Sui Fondamenti della Dinamica Economica”, Rivista Italiana di Statistica, Anno II, No. 3, Luglio-Settembre, 1930—VIII, pp. 222-268 |
| Walras, Léon | Économie politique appliquée |
| Économie sociale | |
| Éléments d’économie politique | |
| Wicksteed, Philip | The Alphabet of Economic Science |
| Common Sense of Political Economy | |
| Stephen, Leslie | The [English] Utilitarians [Vol. I. Jeremy Bentham; Vol. II. James Mill; Vol. III. John Stuart Mill (1900). ] |
| Zawadzki, Wl. | Les mathématiques appliquées à l’économie politique |
| Zeuthen, F. L. | Problems of Monopoly and Economic Welfare |
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Specific References to Pareto by Schultz
A ten-page handout prepared by Schultz for Economics 402 “General Laws of Individual Demand and Supply (after Pareto)” includes much more specific references to Pareto’s works, the first of which is a new item.
Vilfredo Pareto
- Giornale degli Economisti, 1892, pp. 119-157, 1893, pp. 279-321.
[Considerazioni Sui Principii Fondamentali Dell’Economia Politica Pura
jstor link to May 1892, Volume 4, pp. 389-420;
jstor link to June 1892, Volume 4, pp. 485-512;
jstor.org link to August 1892, Volume 5, pp. 119-157;
jstor.org link to January 1893, Volume 6, pp. 1-37;
jstor.org link to October 1893, Volume 7, pp. 279-321.
English translation: Considerations on the Fundamental Principles of Pure Political Economy (edited by Roberto Marchionatti and Fiorenzo Mornati), London: Routledge, 2007.
- Cours d’économie politique (1896-7) Vol. II, § 977. [Volume I; Volume II]
- Manuel d’économie politique (1909) Appendix, §§52-62, pp. 579-591.
- Article on “Économie mathématique,” Encyclopédie des Sciences Mathématiques, Tome I, Vol. 4, Fascicule 4 (1911), 33 32-35.
Source: University of Chicago Archives. Papers of George Stigler. Addenda, Box 33. Folder “1935 University of Chicago Class Notes”.
Image Source: Henry Schultz (detail from group picture of the Cowles Commission’s 4th Annual Research Conference on Economics and Statistics at Colorado Springs, July 20, 1938)
The Rare Book Reading Room of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror proudly announces the addition of a work that was written by Copernicus sometime before April 1526. It represents an early statement of the quantity theory of money.
Copernicus, Nicolaus. Monetae Cudendae Ratio (On the Coinage of Money).
Latin and Polish translation (1854). Beginning p. 563 in Nicolai Copernici Torunensis De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri sex : accedit G. Joachimi Rhetici Narratio prima, cum Copernici nonnullis scriptis minoribus nunc primum collectis, ejusque vita. Warsaw: Strąbski, 1854.
Latin and French translation (1864). Traictie de la première invention des monnoies de Nicole Oresme; textes français et latin d’après les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque impeériale, et Traité de la monnoie de Copernic; texte latin et traduction française. Publiés et annotés par M. L. Wolowski. Paris, Guillaumin et cie., 1864. Download entire book at archive.org.
Latin and German translation (1978). Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus. Texte, Übersetzungen Kommentare. Berlin (East): Akademie-Verlag, 1978.
Latin and English translation with images of an early copy of the original (Copernican Academic Portal, Nicolaus Copernicus Thorunensis of Nicolaus Copernicus University). There exists three known such copies according to Leszek Zygner’s introductory page. Images; transcription; translation (by Edward Rosen).
Image Source: Copernican Academic Portal
The collection of artifacts here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has grown sufficiently large that part of my self-imposed curation duties now include adding postings to link back to some earlier postings that perhaps newer visitors and subscribers have yet to discover.
One such underused resource in my opinion is the list of items “Recommended Teacher’s Library of Economics” put together by J. Laurence Laughlin and published in 1887. To date, Laughlin’s List has received only 53 page visits since being posted in August, 2015. What makes the transcription a true resource for historians of economics is that nearly all the references given by Laughlin now have links. Thus in that single posting we have a virtual library of economics that would have been an economics professor’s pride at the dawn of graduate education in economics in the United States.
Latest addition to the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror Rare Book Reading Room: a link to the Latin original of Daniel Bernoulli’s paper for his solution to the St. Petersburg paradox.
From the English translator’s note: “I am also grateful to Mr. William J. Baumol, Professor of Economics, Princeton University, for his valuable assistance in interpreting Bernoulli’s paper in the light of modern econometrics”.
Visitors must drop down this page to the comments section to enjoy the material shared by Olav Bjerkholt that he found in the Econometrica files regarding the publication of the English translation of the Bernoulli paper. Fabulous stuff!
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1738
Bernoulli, Daniel. Specimen theoriae novae de mensura sortis, Commentarii academiae scientiarum imperialis Petropolitanae. Tomus V. St. Petersburg, 1738, pp. 175-192.
Repository: Natural History Museum Library, London.
German translation by Alfred Pringsheim with introduction by Ludwig Fick. Leipzig: Duncker & Mumblot, 1896.
English translation (link requires access to jstor) by Dr. Louise Sommer published as “Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of Risk” in Econometrica, Vol. 22, No. 1 (January, 1954), pp. 23-36.
Image Source: New York City Public Library Reading Room, ca. 1911. From Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.
Harvard students first experienced Joseph Schumpeter’s teaching in 1927-28 in an advanced theory course (Economics 15: Modern Schools of Economic Thought) previously taught by Allyn Young [examination questions for Economics 15 for 1921-27 have been posted earlier] and in a money and banking course. For both courses this posting provides the reading period assignments, course enrollments and final examination questions from the end of the second term. The examination questions for the first term of Economics 15 for 1927-28 are posted here. The examination questions for the first term of Economics 38 for 1927-28 are posted here.
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Course Enrollments
[Economics] 15. Professor J. A. Schumpeter (University of Bonn).—Modern Schools of Economic Thought.
Total 16: 10 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 4 Radcliffe.
[Economics] 38. Professor J. A. Schumpeter (University of Bonn).— Principles of Money and of Banking.
Total 25: 19 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Radcliffe, 1 Other.
Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1927-1928, p. 75.
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
(Inter-Departmental Correspondence Sheet)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
December 6, 1927
Dear Burbank:
The question of the assignment of readings for the reading period is, of course, no easy one in the case of an audience which is so little homogeneous as mine. In both courses I have told them that what I really want is to advise them individually according to everyone’s own needs, and that I wish them to call in my consultation hours before breaking up. With this proviso, I have recommended for those who do not wish for such individual advice, and at the same time still want to take the course for credit, the following:
First, as to Money and Banking:
The looking over of the two volumes of the Senate Commission of Gold and Silver Inquiry on European Currency and Finance, serial 9, volume I and [volume] II, Washington, 1925, (not that they will read it through, all of them, but they will get out of them a quantity of ideas of the European currency situation which, after all, is both theoretically and practically important for them to know).
Second, for the course Economics 15:
I have told them that we do not want to make them read, but to make them think, and I have suggested that they should take one of the three following books and read it critically, and follow up problems or arguments which may strike them in doing so:
Allyn Young, Economic Problems
Hawtrey, The Economic Problem
Sir Alfred Mond, Industry and Politics.
Cordially yours,
[signed]
Josef Schumpeter
Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950 (UAV.349.10), Box 7.
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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
SPRING READING PERIOD—1928
Economics 15
- Students who have had a modicum of mathematical training are recommended to work up carefully either:
A. L. Bowley: Mathematical Groundwork of Economics (1924).
or
A. Cournot: Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth, ed. of 1927. - Others:
A. C. Pigou: Economics of Welfare. [1932 edition]
or The Colwyn Report.
[Report of the Committee on National Debt and Taxation (1927); Minutes of Evidence taken before the Committee on National Debt and Taxation. Vol. I and II. (1927)]
Economics 38
- W. R. Burgess: The Reserve Banks and the Money Market, 1927.
- Kirsch and Elkins: Central Banks, 1928.
- W. S. Jevons: Investigations in Currency and Finance, ed. 1909.
[1884 edition]
or
3a) Report of the Royal Comm. On Indian Currency and Finance, 1926.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1927-28”.
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1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 15
Modern Schools of Economic Thought
- Write as fully as possible on any one of the following subjects:
- What is the meaning and importance of the doctrine of maximum satisfaction and its relation to the concept of economic equilibrium?
- What do you think of the view that recurrent depressions are due to the inability of earnings to flow promptly into the hands of consumers?
- Describe the principle underlying Professor Irving Fisher’s method of measuring marginal utility. What do you think of it?
- Answer briefly two out of the four following questions:
- Professor H. L. Moore’s statistical demand curve for pig iron slopes up instead of down. How do you account for this?
- What is an indifference curve in the sense of Pareto as distinguished from the sense in which Edgeworth uses that concept?
- Discuss Professor Edgeworth’s proposition that equilibrium is indeterminate in the case of bilateral monopoly.
- What is the difference between physical and value marginal product? Which seems to you more significant, and why?
Final. 1928.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers 1928 (HUC 7000.28, 70 of 284). Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, Church History,…Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1928.
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1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 38
Principles of Money and of Banking
I
Discuss ONE of the following topics, devoting at least half your time to this part of the paper.
- A capital levy is among the measures recommended for the restoration of a disorganized currency. State the conditions under which this measure may be expected to improve the situation.
- The Bank of France used to defend its gold reserve by redeeming its notes in five-franc silver pieces and charging a premium if redemption in gold was insisted upon. How does this method differ from the method of protecting the gold reserve by means of an increase in the discount rate?
II
Discuss TWO of the following questions more briefly.
- It has been stated that open market operations cannot stave off credit inflation because of their comparatively insignificant amount. (Lehfeldt.) Is this correct?
- What is meant by saying that savings do not create deposits?
- The chances are that gold production will slow down in the next decade. Are we to expect a general depression on that account? (Cassel.)
- During the first three months of the current year there was a net outflow of more than $90,000,000 of gold from this country. How do you interpret this fact and what consequences do you expect therefrom?
Final. 1928.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Examination Papers 1928 (HUC 7000.28, 70 of 284). Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, Church History,…Economics,…Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1928.
Image source: Joseph A. Schumpeter at table with books, photograph, ca. 1930. Detail from image posted at Harvard University Archives. Joseph Schumpeter Papers. HUGBS 276.90p (38).
Harold Hotelling continued teaching courses in mathematical economics after leaving Columbia [here an earlier posting that lists all his courses taught at Columbia] for the University of North Carolina in 1946. From two folders in Hotelling’s papers in the Columbia University archives we can piece together the week-by-week list of topics he covered for the Fall quarter of 1946 and 1950. Note that the record for 1946 begins as a typed document that then is corrected and extended by hand-written additions.
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[Begin typed]
MATHEMATICAL ECONOMICS COURSE
Fall quarter, 1946. Two hours each Tuesday and Thursday.
Oct. 1. General scope of economic theory as treated mathematically. Static and dynamic economics. Greater superficial interest in dynamic economics but greater body of definite knowledge in the static field. Moreover an understanding of static theory is important for an understanding and elucidation of dynamic phenomena.
List of important mathematical writers on economic theory, especially static economic theory: Cournot, Dupuit, Walras, Edgeworth, Pareto, I. Fisher, Schultz. Also Amoroso, Pantaleoni, Slutzky. Bibliography of Hotelling writings on economic theory.
Oct. 3. Demand curves and functions. Classification of exchanges by double dichotomy according as buyer and seller are monopolistic or competitive. Indeterminacy of the case of monopoly vs. monopsony. Other cases classically regarded as determinate. But beware of assuming determinacy if there are as many as 2 monopolies in the system. Incidence of taxation on a monopolist of just one commodity (classical treatment). Proof that a tax of t per unit on monopolist leads him to increase the price.
Assignment for Oct. 8: Find 3 demand functions such that for monopoly and zero cost the increase in price will be (1) greater than t, (2) = t, (3) less than t. Be sure the functions are realistic in the sense of being monotonically decreasing, and that both price and quantity are positive.
Oct. 8: Discussion of problems assigned. (2 out of the 8 enrolled came forward with solutions.) Demand functions for 2 related commodities. The nature of cost functions for a single commodity: total cost as a function of quantity produced tends to rise stepwise in industrial production. Average cost varies in a quasi-periodic fashion, usually tending to decrease. Marginal cost usually low but with short periods of very high values as production increases.
[Handwritten insert:]
Oct. 10. Indifference loci. Utility, ophelimity, pleasure, non-measurable but ordinable.
[Last typed item:]
Oct. 15. Duopoly (“Stability in Competition,” Econ. J. 1929). Contributions of Cournot, Bertrand, Edgeworth.
[Handwritten items follow:]
Oct. 17. Bilateral monopoly, etc. Problem: Prove competitive price in Cournot’s duopoly < monopoly price with same demand function (Costs zero)
Oct. 22. Further discussion of problem. More on indifference curves & demand functions. Emphasis derived from “stability in competition” upon need for expressing quantities of cont[inuou]s functions of more than one price. Does Cournot duopoly imply a lower price than monopoly?
Oct. 24. Demand function with limited budgets.
Oct. 24. Equations of general equilibrium. Indeterminacy of price ratios.
Oct. 29. Bartlett gives proof (which the class could not find previously) that Cournot duopoly implied lower price than monopoly.
Equation of exchange: MV +M´V´= Σpq
Oct. 31. Theory of maxima & minima: 1st order conditions, including Lagrange multiplier case. Relation to Taylor series.
Nov. 5. 2nd order conditions. Definite & indefinite quadratic forms, with & without linear constraints.
Nov. 7 Application to obtaining 1st-order conditions on demand functions unlimited budget case): symmetry conditions and inequalities. (Case of soap manufacturer)
Nov. 12. Conditions on supply functions in unlimited budget case. Demand functions with limited budgets. 6-term integrability conditions.
Nov. 14. Inequalities on demand functions with limited budgets; on supply functions with limited budgets
Nov. 19. Construction of suitable utility functions for general-equilibrium illustrations. Schultz attempted verifications. Problems of demand-function fitting. (Loaned Schultz book to [illegible word]) Taxation in general-equilibrium theory.
Nov. 21 Omitted
Paper will be required in lieu of exam.
Nov. 26. Edgeworth’s taxation paradox.
Dec. 3. Rent. Site rental & capital values. Benefit. Consumers’ & producers’ surpluses.
Dec. 5. Proof (à la “General Welfare” paper) that sales should be at marginal cost; also net loss given by a quadratic form.
Dec. 10. Connection of above with pp. 606ff. of “Edgeworth’s Taxation Paradox.” Taxation of site rentals; of scarce things such as space in crowded trains; on inheritances; of incomes; of nuisances. Minimization of net loss consistently with raising a specified revenue.
Dec. 12. Discussion. Index numbers of prices.
Source: Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Papers of Harold Hotelling, Courses Taught M-S (partial) Box 48, Folder “Mathematical Economics (2)”.
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Statistics/Economics 182. Mathematical Economics.
Autumn, 1950.
Harold Hotelling
September 21. General introduction. List of references. “Comparative statics,” as distinguished from study of transitional conditions. Edgeworth’s taxation paradox as a historic demonstration for need of calculus and algebra, not merely wordy or geometric arguments. Effect of tax on monopoly price with 1 commodity—the classical graphic argument. Assignment: (1) Prove that dp/dt, the rate of increase of monopoly price with tax t, is positive; (2) determine whether dp/dt has any positive limits which are the same for all monotonically decreasing demand functions having derivatives.
Sept. 26. Further discussion of taxation of monopoly. Assignment to calculate the effect on prices of 2 commodities controlled by 1 monopolist of a tax on 1 of these commodities, with a specified pair of demand functions.
Sept. 28. Preview of conditions under which Edgeworth’s taxation paradox may hold, and of nature of demand and supply functions.
Oct. 3. Duopoly. Cournot’s treatment. Duality with double monopoly (by different producers of parts of 1 final product). The 1929 “Stability in Competition” treatment. Mutual gravitation of competitors.
Oct. 5. Double dichotomy of markets, with extension to duopoly, oligopoly, duopsony, oligopsony; also to a multiplicity of commodities. Location of industry. Von Thünen, Goodrich. Problems of shape of a city; of layout of a railroad on a homogeneous plain for the purpose of bringing grain to one city.
Oct. 10. Holiday.
Oct. 12. Review of previous work. Classic supply and demand curves, with generalization to 2 commodities. illustration with linear demand and supply functions of effects of taxation of 2 commodities.
Oct. 17. Cost –total, marginal, average. Indeterminacy of average cost. Joint costs. Allocation logically impossible without consideration of demand. “Cost-finding systems” and cost accounting. Relative precision of marginal cost.
Oct. 19. Consumers’ surplus, producers’ surplus, benefits, effects of excise taxes—all for one isolated commodity; graphic and algebraic treatments. Distribution of excise taxes among independent commodities; but the necessity of replacing this result by something based on relations between commodities. The need of algebra and calculus rather than geometry for this.
Oct. 24. Demand functions for multiple commodities with unlimited budgets. Theory of maxima and minima.
Oct. 26, 31; Nov. 2, 7. Theory of maxima and minima; demand and supply functions with unlimited budgets. Symmetry-integrability conditions; inequalities
Nov. 9. Demand functions with limited budgets. Indifference curves. Utility.
Nov. 14. Further developments à la Slutsky and Hicks.
Nov. 16. Giffen phenomenon, exhibited by means of the utility function Ø = x – e-y.
Nov. 21. Equations of general equilibrium, approximately according to Irving Fisher. Need of monetary equation to fix general level of prices.
Nov. 23. Thanksgiving holiday.
Nov. 28. Assignment: Work out and bring in next time (if not too hard) solution of equations of general equilibrium for 2 groups, farmers and fishermen, of equal numbers, large and competitive, with respective utility functions Ø = x – e-y; and the smaller root of (x- Ø)(y- Ø) = 1. Calculus of variations in the small and in the large. Formulae for variations of prices and quantities in terms of excise tax rates for a group of commodities for which demand and supply maximize profits without budgetary limitations.
Nov. 30, Dec. 5, 7. Incidence and effects of taxation with unlimited and with limited budgets. Net loss from excise taxes is positive and approximately equal to ½ Σ ti δ qi. Criterion for social value of investment. Economy of making all sales at marginal cost. Index numbers of prices.
Source: Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Papers of Harold Hotelling, Courses Taught M-S (partial) Box 48, Folder “Mathematical Economics (1)”.
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Final Examination
Mathematical Economics. Math./Stat. 182
December 13, 1950
I.
A monopolist sells quantities x, y of two commodities at prices p1, p2 and pays taxes t1, t2 per unit sold respectively. His costs amount to*
C = 20 – x – y
and the demand functions are
x = 5 – 2p1 + p2,
y = 10 + p1 – 3p2.
Determine as functions of the tax rates (a) the prices and (b) the quantities yielding maximum revenue.
*(This cost function is unrealistic but the students were told to use it)
II.
If a toll of $p is levied for each crossing of a certain bridge, the number of crossings per year is q = 10,000 (9 -3p-p2) when this expression is positive, and is otherwise zero.
(a) What toll yields the maximum revenue?
When this toll is charged, …
(b) …how many crossings will be made per year?
(c) …what is the revenue?
(d) …what is the consumers’ surplus?
(e) …what is the total benefit from the bridge?
(f) What is the maximum possible total benefit?
III.
For a class of people all having the preference function
prove that a suitable index number of the cost of living is a certain weighted geometric mean.
Source: Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Papers of Harold Hotelling, Courses Taught M-S (partial) Box 48, Folder “Mathematical Economics (1)”.
Image source: From a photo of the Institute of Statistics leadership around 1946: Gertrude Cox, Director, William Cochran, Associate Director-Raleigh and Harold Hotelling, Associate Director-Chapel Hill. North Carolina State University.
In this 1960 memo to the executive committee of Harvard’s economics department, the polyglot economic historian, Alexander Gerschenkron, provided his written blessing for, indeed he initiated, the abolishment of a foreign language requirement for the graduate study of economics. Since the copy of the mimeographed memo was found in John Kenneth Galbraith’s papers, it is fitting to add his brief assent together with his comment on Gerschenkron’s obiter dicta with respect to math requirements.
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Memo to the Executive Committee
from Alexander Gerschenkron
(March 19, 1959)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Littauer Center
Cambridge 38, Mass.
CONFIDENTIAL
March 19, 1959
TO: Members of the Executive Committee
I should like to give you an advance warning of my intention to propose, at the next regular meeting of the department, a radical change in our language requirements.
I have administered our language examinations for about ten years. You may recall that in the first year of operation I proposed, and the department accepted, a considerable reform of the way in which language examinations were given. The duration of the examination was extended from one hour to two hours, and the length of the material to be translated was more than doubled. At the same time much more difficult passages began to be selected; and finally, the examination was graded much more rigorously than it had been before. At that time I had the hope that it would be possible to stimulate through the language examination an increased interest in, and a fuller mastery of, foreign languages. It is perfectly clear to me now that this hope has not materialized. It is true that the students had to work harder in order to pass the examination, but it is equally true that whatever knowledge was acquired was allowed to fall into disrepair following the examination. The long run effect, which after all is the only thing that matters, has been zero point zero.
At the same time it is perfectly clear that the opportunity cost of preparing for the language examination is extremely high. Our students are a hard-working lot and we keep them very busy. I wonder very seriously whether it can be justified to force our students to cut out of a working day of some 10 or 11 hours and hour or two in order to master a language which in all likelihood will never be used by the student in his professional career. To some extent our language requirements are in the nature of an anachronism and we might do well to admit the fact frankly. At the turn of the century reading knowledge of French and German may have been the necessary prerequisite of any well rounded economics education. This is certainly not so now. The center of gravity shifted and at the same time the interest in the history of doctrines has greatly diminished. I am fully aware of the general benefit inherent in the study of languages. But I believe that we have to think in terms of professional proficiency. I doubt that the foreign language requirement could be justified under any circumstances, least of all if one consider how negligible its effect has been.
I plan therefore to make the following motion: All foreign language requirements for Ph.D. as well as for M.A. are abolished beginning with the class entering in September 1959. An examination in mathematics becomes an absolute requirement from which there is no dispensation and to which accordingly every candidate is subject. The Chairman should appoint a committee to discuss in which way, if any, the standards for the examination in mathematics should be improved.
Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Alexander Gerschenkron
Chairman, Language Requirements
AG/jw
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John Kenneth Galbraith’s Reply to the Memo
March 23, 1959
Professor Alexander Gerschenkron
Littauer M-7
Dear Alex:
I approve your proposal on languages with some reservations about the mathematics examination. I do not question your goal. But would it not be better — and better for secondary and college preparation — to put the mathematics requirement firmly in the requirements for admission?
Yours faithfully,
J.K. Galbraith
Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Papers of John Kenneth Galbraith. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526, Folder “Department of Economics, Executive Committee 5/22/56-11/29/60”.
Image Source: Alexander Gerschenkron in the Harvard Class Album, 1952.